MPEG recently released a statement from its 115th meeting, that it “has reached the first milestone for the CMAF specification.” CMAF defines a common container format for segmented media as well as presentation and media profiles. CMAF segments can be used in environments that support adaptive bitrate streaming of the media segments using HTTP(S) and any presentation description, such as DASH MPD Manifests and Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) Playlists.

At the WWDC 2016, Apple also announced its support for fMP4 segments in HLS on all their platforms (iOS, tvOS, MacOS). This is aligned with the standardization effort.

A common media format embodied in a widely adopted MPEG standard eliminates duplication of engineering efforts and the need to store identical content in slightly different formats, or just-in-time repackaging and encryption. Moreover, it improves overall interoperability and the efficiency of TV CDN’s.

“The same encrypted media segments can now be stored, cached and routed over the networks, regardless of the type of device or choice of browser. CDN’s are less efficient when users request the same media in many different format,” says Dr. Göran Appelquist, CTO at Edgeware. “Up until now you either had to store multiple versions of the same content or provide repackaging and encryption on the fly to reach the heterogeneous landscape of OTT devices. Having this format standardized will mean tremendous savings for our customers particularly in caching, repackaging and storage costs to support current and future playback devices.”

For content owners, this common distribution allows the use of any DRM systems that conform to MPEG Common Encryption for key management and will allow single encoding of TV and video file to be securely streamed to any device with internet access.

Edgeware provides operators and content owners with the tools to deliver their TV services at huge scale and low cost. Edgeware’s unique technology gives control and insight back to the content provider and delivers TV with an outstanding viewing experience. Edgeware is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with offices worldwide.